Memories
by Petague Killaboo
Summary: Memories are a collection of moments. Each moment containing bits of information that are stored safely in the mind, like files in a filing cabinet. Unfortunately, Iruka's seemed to have lost the key to unlock his memories and it is up to his friends and village to help him find it before Danzo and Eiji try to break him open. Sequel to Forgotten and Ravings of a Mad Man.


Disclaimer: I do not own anything of Naruto and I am not being paid for this.

Continuation of Forgotten and Ravings of a Mad Man.

Author note at the end.

Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 1: Missing More**

Memories are a collection of moments. Each moment containing bits of information that could be recalled or stored safely in the mind, like files in a filing cabinet. Those that were practitioners in storing information or favored the Sherlock Holms series would call the cabinet a Memory Palace. These Memory Palaces could take on any form. Some were like giant Edo period castles. Others a small house with lots of framed pictures, but this Memory Palace was a forest.

A never-ending forest with shelves carved into large redwood trunks and books or scrolls crammed into every available space. Loose-leaf papers littered the grassy floor, plush and green like new spring grass. Overhead the miles of branches weaved and twisted around one another. Their multicolored autumn leaves danced on an intangible breeze and sunlight trickled between the gaps casting dancing patterns on top of the wood, books, and scrolls.

Inoichi and his daughter Ino stood gaping at the mindscape before them, surprised by the vastness and beauty of Umino's mind. Inoichi moved with careful steps weary of the potential traps and defenses that Umino might have in place for intruders. "First things first," he said in a smooth commanding voice, "we must find Umino-sensei."

"I'm right here," a soft voice called from behind them. Inoichi and Ino whirled around and with fist raised ready to fight. Umino sat behind a large stump piled high with loose white papers.

There were two things Inoichi noted at once. The first were the white bandages and hospital gown that covered Umino. It spoke a great deal about how assured Umino was of himself to appear unchanged in his mind. Most people created personas or were over exaggerations of themselves, like Gai's mind all sparkles and manliness with muscles twice as big than in real life. The second thing Inoichi noted was the young appearances of Umino Iruka. In reality, he was nearing 30 and had grown into a full man. All hard and strong lines chiseled by life experiences. This Umino was young, perhaps barely 17. A testament to the memories Umino had lost.

"You look a little confused," Umino said shifting in his chair.

"We weren't excepting to find you so soon," Inoichi stated truthfully. He had been prepared to spend at least an hour hunting for the teacher.

"I did say I would cooperate. It wouldn't do to leave you wondering around in here. Time is of the essence as Lady Hokage keeps stressing." Slowly he clambered to his feet and stepped around the large stump.

"Well then, where should we start?" Inoichi looked around.

"Is there some damage trees, Iruka-sensei?" Ino asked walking toward the teacher.

Umino showed no recognition of knowing Ino. "No. That's not how this jutsu works."

Ino perked up. "So you've remembered something!" she said excitedly.

"No, I figured out some of it by process of eliminations and known categories of mind jutus that I have memory of," Umino corrected as he sat back on the stump and crossed his arms over his chest.

Ino slumped slightly. Her pale green eyes reflecting the disappointment she felt. Inoichi felt for his daughter. He hadn't wanted to bring her along knowing the hope she was harboring that her teacher might remember her. If one of the other clan members had been free he would have brought them instead, but as it stood his daughter was the only one not running a mission or interrogating someone. Beside, Inoichi thought, this would be a good training even if it was under poor circumstances. Ino would learn the basic of the inner mind invasion and who better to learn on then her former teacher, memory loss not with standing.

"Well, what have you put together?" Inoichi asked.

"Well first it's not a genjutsu of any kind. Or a ninjutsu. There are no damaged trees. No missing scrolls or books, or even pages for that matter. So I would say a Fuinjutsu of some type. A seal, maybe."

"Hatake-san mission report did state that he had walked in on you painting something on your forehead."

"Which is why I said Fuinjutsu and well," Umino paused in thought and then nodded to himself, "I found something interesting." He walked over to one of the nearest tree shelves and plucked as scroll off a shelf at eye level. He walked over to Inoichi and held the scroll out. "Mostly everything has this weird thing on it."

Inoichi took the scroll carefully and unfurled it. He didn't see anything. It was just blank. "There isn't anything here." Umino blinked at him and then at the scroll before waving a hand over it. Slowly a weird squiggly line that curled and loop several times in different angles shimmered into existence. "What is this?"

"You're the mind expert. Thought you might know."

"These papers don't have it," Ino pointed out. The papers on the stump had neatly written characters on it. Ino reached to pick a page up but Umino placed a bandage hand over hers.

"You should be careful when you're in other people's head," he said warningly, "as a Yamanaka, you should know what these represent and what can happen if you aren't careful. You might be pulled into a memory and have a hard time getting out. The last thing I want to do is explain to the Hokage why one of her nins has gone catatonic."

"Sorry," Ino withdrew her hand and looked away ashamed or at least it was a good act of ashamed. Inoichi could see the slight smile at the corner of his daughter's lips. She was happy about being scolded.

It made sense, Inoichi reasoned, in a weird sorta way. She was probably thinking how much of a teacher Umino sounded. Inoichi thought Umino sounded like the old Umino-sensei, calm and commanding in his speech as he lectured Inoichi's daughter. He cleared his throat breaking the little moment, "I've never seen this before."

"Right, I looked through the memories I have access to but I haven't found anything. All I've noticed is that there are more gaps then I realized."

He frowned at that and analyzed the information quickly. "Memories you have access to?"

Iruka nodded once.

"What else is missing?" Ino asked, catching onto her father's line of thought.

Umino looked down at his bare feet and crinkled his toes in the grass. "Some of my childhood, genin years, and all of my chunin years which I'm guessing started at 16 or 17. I'm, to be honest, not sure of my age."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know my birthdate, or my parents' faces. Whatever jutsu I used sure did a number on me."

There was a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach and from the look on Umino's face he had the same feeling. "I know we asked this once before, but what do you remember?"

"I remember walking way from the memorial stone and heading toward the Hokage."

"Before that?"

Iruka didn't answer.

"After that?"

Iruka didn't answer. He didn't need to. All his memories, except for that day, were gone.

* * *

"So," The Fifth's drawled, "What are you saying exactly?"

Inoichi looked at his leader with a mighty frown. The other occupants in the room mirrored his expression. Six weeks had passed since they'd begun trying to reclaim the lost information, but everything they tried had failed.

The odd squiggly symbol was a dead end. No seal user had ever seen it before, or Hatake-san for that matter. If the man of a thousand jutsus and former student of the seal master the Fourth Hokage didn't know, then no one would know.

"As my report states Hokage-sama," Inoichi flexed his jaw. He really didn't want to deliver this news. Not to the people in this room. Not to his daughter, or her friends, or the elders glaring at him from the corner. "The knowledge that Umino Iruka has access to," he paused again. The hopeful looks were too much. The glimmer in his daughter's pale green eyes broke his heart. "Only pertains to a single day. That includes any shinobi knowledge he might have had that day. But the information, such as his birthday, parents names, or former teammate have been sealed and we have no way of unlocking them."

"Explain further." The Fifth commanded in an iron hard voice. "What do you mean when you say, Shinobi knowledge pertaining to that day?"

Inoichi shifted. The crushed look of Sakura and Ino nearly did him in, but it was the look on Naruto's face that killed him. The pain and sadness in his eyes, the way the usually cheerful boy's shoulders sagged. Inoichi didn't want to go on.

"Yamanaka."

He flinched. Duty was duty he reminded himself. With a gathering breath he spoke very clearly. Pronouncing each word so as not to be misunderstood. "After several weeks working with Umino, we came to the conclusion that he had been using the seal often to lock way information. After reviewing some of the mission reports, we determined that the reason for most of these seals was to protect the village from possible danger should Umino have ever been captured by enemy shinobi." He took another breath, "Umino believes that he might have sealed some memories when he was learning how to use the seal. There is also the possibility that he sealed other memories to escape the pain of the shinobi life. I believe that to be a plausible reason as there are several reports in his file stating mental health issues with several missions. As well as a report written by the Third stating that Umino was given a year of rest due to waning mental health. This report is written around that same time that Umino had put in a request to be removed from active duty."

Inoichi paused, gathering himself again. Tears were staining his daughter's cheeks now. "Umino has confessed, Hokage-sama, that the day he remembers, October 6th of Rat, he had completed another sealing on a batch of memories. He claimed after he completed the sealing he had been summoned by the Third to discuss his future as a shinobi and that he had every intention of turning him down."

He was fighting hard now not to run to his daughter and swoop her up in his arms and promise her he'd bring the sensei she knew back. "The working knowledge, are the jutsus that he knew then Hokage-sama. We wrote out a list. It's in the report." The list was a small leather bound book containing over 600 jutsus that Umino knew, a large a moment for a low-rank chunin. "The list is broken down into the jutsus he can preform and the jutsus he knows the mechanics to." The Fifth was already leafing through the book. "You can understand why the Third wanted him to teach and keep him close."

"Why does he only remember this day?" the Fifth's face was carefully schooled blank. It was clear she was ignoring the quiet sobs of Ino and Sakura. Naruto was painfully silent, tears weren't falling but they looked like they would soon.

"I don't know. He doesn't know. All he is curtain of," he stopped again, "after reading the last report of the mission to Rock, Umino is curtain of only one thing. He had meant for his entire mind to be sealed. Something must have prevented the completion of the seal, but he isn't sure what. It might have something to do with October 6, something…" he trailed off.

Silence only broken by the quiet sobs of Ino and Sakura hung in the air for several long minutes. Inoichi was ready to scoop his daughter up and leave the room, Hokage be damn, this place was full of sorrow and he didn't want her to cry any more.

"We should reach out to one of our allies and request assist," one of the elders chimed.

"I already have. Seal masters and mind readers, nothing."

"Torture," the other Elder stated.

"Are you serious?" Inoichi countered

"Danzo has proposed-"

"I assure you, there is nothing that Lord Danzo can do that we haven't already tried," Inoichi snapped.

"We need that information," The first elder said.

It didn't have to be said. He didn't have to say it. It was pretty clear, he thought, but saying it would drive home that fact and clear out any lingering doubts. No matter how terrible the news was. "There is no way to recover Umino Iruka's memories."

And then Naruto broke.

* * *

It seemed a bit surreal, to come to terms that he didn't know anything. Well that wasn't completely true. He knew his name and his birthplace. Oh and he knew how to use chopsticks and pull his pants up. Those were important things to know. Those jutsu he knew counted too, a small part of his brain reminded him. That shinobi part he couldn't seem to get rid of no matter how many times he tried to seal it.

That was another thing he knew. October 6th he had been trying to seal away his shinobiness and failed. Miserably.

He sat staring at the opposite wall. He didn't like that wall. It was discolored and there was this dripping sound coming from it. Iruka swallowed.

The dripping sound started to grow louder with it his heart started to pound. His pulse rate jumped.

He didn't like that wall.

He didn't like the dripping.

He dimly became aware that his breath was coming in short burst. His legs had been drawn up close to him. Pain started quite suddenly and he bit down on a cry as it felt like giant claws were raking their way across his back. Then something dark started to pull away from the wall. It had large fangs, blood red and dripping. It's large maul opening.

He became aware that he was screaming, a blood-curling scream that scratched at every corner of the room. Then something was flowing into his body, and if he hadn't lost it before he was losing it now. His body jerked and hands lashed out. Words tumbled from his lips follow by a blast of chakra. Then reality snapped back into place.

The dripping, the pain, and the monster were gone along with his energy. Dropping to his knees with a loud crack, Iruka slumped forward and vomited. His body was shaking. His mind was running a mile a minute, analyzing everything that had just happened and quickly filing everything and pulling out whatever references there was. It was comforting in a weird way even as he tried to throw up his stomach. This was the surest thing for him right now, the shinobi part of him that wouldn't leave, was so comforting.

A hacking cough finally caught his attention. Looking up took more energy then it should, widening his eyes was merely a reaction to the surprise he felt when his spotted the ANBU laying slump against the discolored wall and standing next to him Danzo. Iruka quickly moved to his feet.

"You remember me," the man said. Danzo had a sever frown, like his face muscles didn't know how to smile any more. The right part of his face was covered in bandages.

"Not really," Iruka replied through gasping breaths. It wasn't a total lie. He didn't know exactly who Danzo was. What he did know was that he had a strong dislike for him.

"What do you know?" It was a simple question, but Iruka could tell there was a multitude of answers. Danzo was looking for a very specific answer and he had just tried to scare it out of him, no not scare.

Torture.

The thought sat heavy in his aching belly. He swallowed, unable to stop from showing his nervousness, and that was a mistake he could tell from the way Danzo narrowed his one good eye with a calculating look.

"You're going to have to be more specific. Cause I seem to know a lot of things. Like the right way to put on sandals. You see most people start with their right but the best way is to-"

Danzo slammed the end of his cane onto the tile floor with a thwack. "I don't care for your mind games Umino."

"Really," Iruka knew he should just close his mouth, but he pushed anyways. "You look like a man who enjoys psychological games."

"I was merely testing your mental state before I paid a visit."

"And I was merely testing you're bodyguards ribcage, before I test yours."

"Ever the quick wit."

"I know I don't like you."

"Then we have a mutual understanding."

There were shouts coming from the hallway. The medics, well they took their sweet time. He'd need to have a talk with the Fifth about them. Danzo looked over his shoulder and then knelt down next to the ANBU. The Fifth burst into the room, yanking the door off its hinges as she entered. Danzo looked at her then Iruka, "Satoshi," he said before he and the ANBU disappeared into smoke.

The word slammed him against him like a ton of bricks. Something deep in the forest library reacted to that…name, he realized.

"Iruka!" the Fifth's voice sounded so far away.

Iruka felt himself falling, then nothing.

* * *

Well. It has been quite awhile. I really wanna thank everyone who has reviewed and followed me for the last several years and apologize that I have kept you all waiting for so long. I need to complete this series, I made a promise to a lot of people I would and you best believe I will do my very damn best to draw this and Ravings of a Mad Man to a close. It'll be hard as I'm also doing a masters degree and working on other projects, but I simply can't keep putting this off.

I hope you all will stick with me to the end of this series and beyond!

Love always,

Petague Killaboo


End file.
